Both black wires appeared to be hot when I tested them. Then I noticed the two red wires. This was an unused junction box in the ceiling of my garage. I have two two outlet receptacles. Only one of the black wires should be hot right?
The first step is to try and determine if the black wires are fed from the same breker.
Turn off one breaker or remove one fuse at a time to find out if only one or if both of the black wires have power. This shold tell you if they are fed from the same source.
You did not mention any white wires which you should have.
YOu did not say anything about the red wires having power. Normally for recepticals black is one side of the 240 volts, red is the other and white is the neutrral. Check from the black to the red wire to see if you have the nominal 240 volts. If so Do the same breker off thing to determine if they are fed from the same source.
If no power on the red wiires, you can try going back to the breaker box and seeing if for some reason the red wires were used for the neutral, which should never be done.
White is cold.
green (if present is ground)
all other colors are hot such as black , red, blue & yellow
Replace your "is" and "are" with "should be".
We really don't know how the OP's box is wired.
P.S. The term is "nuetral" not "cold".
It's not clear what the total wire count is, but it sounds like two of each of those colors? If so, he has a lot of wires going into one unused ceiling box. Possible that either the black or the red are switched, the others permanently hot.
Ok perfectionist you are right!
We are far from having enough information to do more than offer a wild assed guess.
Especially since he did not mention and white wires.
So the bond to j-box ground terminal red wires tested black screw ceiling appeared recepicals four garage only two two unused noticed appeared right?
Read the subject line.
Wires red receptacle two bond appeared notice switch floor pipe lug shed. Thanks!
Time for a nap, I did not have my news reader open full screen and that part was cut off.
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Good night. ;-)
If I saw 2 reds nutted together, 2 blacks nutted together and 2 whites nutted together I would guess I was looking at a 3 way switch circuit. Using a digital meter there is enough capacitive coupling that all but the whites would look hot. Ceiling boxes to tend to be junction boxes even when they have luminaires hanging from them. It is just too handy a place in the middle of the room for sparky to ignore and it is usually a pretty big box even though they tend to get over filled. Guessing what is going on can be a crap shoot.
+1
You don't seem to know what you're doing, AND, you haven't provided enough information for anyone to really be able to advise you. That being said, I'd suggest you call an electrician to do this for you. Not only for your own personal safety, but, so you don't cause a fire and potentially burn your garage down, and, your house as well if it's attached. You didn't provide us that information, either.
It's neutral. And, that is NOT set in stone, either.
Erm, without knowing more about the wiring configuration itself, you shouldn't assume that to be true. Electricity is color blind. And, the op should call a licensed electrician to assist them, because, they don't seem to know what they're doing or the risk/danger they could be placing not only themselves in, but, their property as well.
+1 IAWTP
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